The Malibu City Council at its Monday night meeting approved a lease agreement with the owners of Super Care Drugs, making it the new tenant of the vacant city-owned building at the northeast corner of Webb Way and Pacific Coast Highway. The council also denied a request to allow a portion of a long distance, relay run to pass through the eastern end of the city along Pacific Coast Highway in April.
Super Care will leave its current store in the Malibu Creek Village (formerly known as Cross Creek Plaza), located at Cross Creek Road and Pacific Coast Highway. Its lease there is expiring soon.
The city will still continue its ongoing search for another potential tenant, as the pharmacy would only occupy 3,000 square feet (or 62 percent) of the 4,848-square-foot building, which formerly housed Coldwell Banker. Mayor Sharon Barovsky said negotiations are currently underway for Malibu Business & Shipping Center, currently located in Malibu Colony Plaza, to occupy the remaining space.
Mike Sidley, a candidate in the upcoming city council election, told the council they should have leased the space to a lumber store, which has long been requested by residents.
The council members responded that they actively recruited a lumber store, but that the building is not big enough to accommodate one.
“We sought out many hardware stores and lumber yards, but they all required more space and they had to expand outside the building to store their lumber and so on,” Mayor Sharon Barovsky said Tuesday in a phone interview. “The deed restricts going outside the footprint of any of the existing buildings. They simply could not make it work with that size.”
However, Barovsky mentioned that a hardware store has been proposed for a potential project on the parcel that currently houses Papa Jack’s Skate Park, just south of Malibu Library. Whole Foods market is another potential tenant of the proposed development.
The lease with Super Care Drugs will provide the city with an annual rental income of $144,000 for the first two years. The rent would then increase by 3 percent the third lease year and every year thereafter.
Income from leasing the building will be used to support maintenance fees for Legacy Park and to pay off the certificates of participation sold to help meet the purchase price of the parkland.
The parkland was purchased by the city in 2006 for $25 million. In addition to the vacant land that is currently being developed into Legacy Park, the purchase included three commercial properties, including the Malibu Lumberyard land, which is now the site of the Malibu Lumber Yard mall, and the Coldwell Banker and Malibu Animal Hospital properties.
“What we’ve tried to do is keep one of the longest-serving businesses in Malibu in business,” Councilmember Andy Stern said of Super Care Drugs.
Council denies request for relay marathon
The council staunchly denied a request to permit a portion of a long distance relay run, which spans from Santa Barbara to Dana Point, to take place within city limits on Pacific Coast Highway in April.
The organizers of the Ragnar Relay Series made the request in December, months after the city council granted permits to allow the first Malibu Marathon, which took place last November and spanned from Camarillo to Zuma Beach.
All council members unwaveringly opposed the proposed relay run because it would take place on the eastern end of Malibu, which they consider to be more dangerous than the western end because there is more development and more traffic.
“The only conceivable thing about doing this event is having the runners get on a shuttle at Bluffs Park and driving them down to the outskirts of Malibu on the eastern end,” Mayor Pro Tem Jefferson Wagner said at the meeting. “My home is in that general area and just using that part of the highway at night is a sobering attempt. Just trying to get in and out is scary.”